Investigating Personalities and Attitudes towards Torture

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

Recent controversies in regards to the use of enhance interrogation tactics that involve the use of psychological and physical manipulation by law enforcement, have brought the Human Intelligence community under the spotlight like never before. Concerns have increased over the use of torture within an interrogation, finally reaching a peak in the Senate Select Committee report that stated that torture being used as an interrogation tactics failed to deliver accurate and useful information. However, recent political campaigns have introduced the issue of torture being an interrogative tactic and some are supportive of torture being an interrogative tactic. One way of investigating personalities and attitudes towards torture is to determine whether dispositional (behaviors reflect personality desires) situational (behaviors are responses to external situational stimulus, are being created to explain how an interrogator applies torture to an interrogation. The current research investigates this theory with an interrogation scenario and questions if the American interrogator uses these tactics to benefit the security of his fellow U.S citizens, then American participants should be willing to support the behavior from dispositional (acted this way due to personality traits) to situational (acted this way for better good), even if the interrogator is being unethical.

Authors

• Edward Perez, Texas A&M International University

• San Juana Amaya, Texas A&M International University

• Kate Houston, Texas A&M International University